Developing General Chemistry II Online: Successes and Challenges of Online Chemistry at a Primarily Undergraduate Institution

Over the last decade, trends in higher education have led to a significant increase in the number of online courses. While online courses have become common at many community colleges, and major universities have explored teaching through massive open online courses, online or blended programming is becoming common even among smaller institutions with a historical focus on liberal arts and sciences. At Messiah College, we have developed a blended (lecture online, lab on campus) offering of General Chemistry II. In this chapter, I will discuss the motivations, strengths, and weaknesses of this approach with attention to various online tools for interacting with students. This includes learning management systems, synchronous video-linked office hours, and virtual mini lectures, as well as challenges in generating a high quality chemistry course in an online format. I will also discuss reported student perceptions of this learning medium compared with a traditional course delivery